Four players from Hawaii are on the AVCA High School Boys Senior All-American watch list.

Named are Daniel Aina, L, Kamehameha;

Chad Barretta, RS, HBA

Koby Kanetake, L, Moanalua

Gabriel Vega, OH-RS, ‘Iolani

The inaugural watch list includes 74 players from 13 states and serves as the starting point for the selection process. In May, the AVCA will name 20 student-athletes as an All-American, with 10 players being selected to both a First-Team and Second-Team.

The men’s program is not heading towards a good direction. I really hope Charlie can do something about this. I’m a fan till the end, but it’s so hard to watch them play. We need some local boys that love the program and want to see this program be successful and bleed green. I’m not sure I see that with this group. Castello is probably the only exception.

Would love to see some of these local boys stay home, tired of seeing all the best players on other teams being from hawaii…can you imagine if we just got half of those players to stay home?

Punahou plays a couple of highly ranked West Coast teams this week and the Puns are loaded with college prospects. 6’2″ OH Tui Tuileta is the returning All American but others like 6’2″ UCLA bound Sean Gruebner, 6’5″Kupono Fey, the Andrew brothers 6’6″ & 6’7″, and a terrific libero in Collin Peros give Rick Tune a lot of weapons. But the guy people need to see is freshman setter Micah Maa. This kid is special and it would mean so much to see him in a Warrior uniform one day. Of course he will have a ton of options like Kawika Shoji and Micah Christensen had but it’s easy to see this guy grew up around the game and is already a special player. Fans should make an effort to see this team play. It’s worth the $7.

So what do you all think needs to happen for just some of these kids to stay home. There has to be come kids that want to stay home.

I know it’s hard to pass up an opportunity to play at a stanford or ucla, but unless they are getting a full ride, which I doubt, UH has to be in the game some how. We need a recruiter to sell these guys UH. And Charlie is a damn good recruiter for the women, but for some reason, it’s not flowing over to the men. We need these guys to stay home, at least some of them.

I think it could also be a “cool thing” to these high school boys who all know each other and talk to each other to play on the mainland. They all share their experiences with each other and who can really blame them.

As I have said repeatedly the number of local players going away irately s a bit skewed because of the Stanford thing.
The Shojis, Inafuku, McLachlin wanted to play together in college, off the US youth/junior national teams.Lawson in that bunch, and a good friend of all. McLachlin’s dad was a player-coach at Stanford.
The McKibbins went to USC because of a family connection to the school.
UH offered Christiansen, he chose to go to SC.
Very few are on a full ride. but the private schools can get away with giving other types of scholarships that public schools such as UH cannot.
Charlie was a great recruiter but you cannot compare the Wahine tradition and success to the Warriors.
Bottom line, you’re going to lose kids because they want to go to the mainland. Has nothing to do with the UH program. I have interviewed plenty of high school athletes here in a number of sports and they usually included UH in their schools but, as has often been pointed out, how can you pass up a degree from a school like Stanford, SC, UCLA, etc. has nothing to do with the realities of the education received but it’s all about perception. What would look better on your resume when applying for jobs?

While I agree keeping the best home would make a difference I don’t think losing local guys in recruiting hurts as much as in Wahine volleyball or say UH football. With only 23 or so teams in D-1 men’s volleyball we should be able to get our share of talent that keeps us near the top when combined with good coaching. This year we lacked talent and were not well coached. All you had to do was watch last nite’s replay on K5 of the Clay Stanley led squad with 6’9 Andre Breuer and 6’7″ Milodinovich and the setting of Mason Kuo to see how far we have fallen. When the team starts to play well again the crowds will return. If he has to recruit more International then so be it but right now I’m not sold on Wade’s ability to win recruiting wars or match wits with the other coaches in America’s toughest volleyball conference. Next year will be a huge challenge for Charlie to win and get the crowds back. No doubt Hawaii will support a strong men’s volleyball program and JD knows it.